I've been looking at their website the past couple of days..CPTE does look more involved than CEH but what about CPTC? Since CPTC is considered higher than CPTE, are there any certs that may be comparable to CPTC?

To ensure that students gain as much as possible from the CPTConsultant course, we start with a refresher on all tools and techniques covered in ‘foundation’ hacking courses such as CPTEngineer, CEH and OSPT. The subjects covered include information gathering, scanning, enumeration, vulnerability assessments, exploiting systems, packet interception / analysis and wireless detection techniques. Some of the tools the student will use include Sam Spade, SmartWhois, nmap, hping2, xprobe2, RPCclient, LophtCrack, Cain & Abel, Metasploit, Ethereal, Netstumbler, Wellenreiter etc.

Module 3: Core Impact -- Initial Pen Test

This lesson will instruct in the use of Core Technologies, market leading commercial penetration testing application. This tool will allow the penetration tester to quickly build up a security snapshot of the target network. From here, the tester will then move onto more advanced manual methods to complete the test.

The hands-on laboratory will allow the student to use Core Impact to perform a Rapid Pen Test.

Module 4: External/DMZ

The first point of contact with a target network will predominantly be through the De-Militarized Zone. This whole section is dedicated to the exploits that apply to this part of the Attack Surface. It is sub-sectioned into:

DNS/Mail/Web/VPN ServersDatabase Mining-SQL Injection

Database Mining is the process of attacking a database server through the front end. In this section, we open up a network through a SQL server web interface running on a web server inside the DMZ.

Laboratory: Students will be thrust into an online banking environment and will successfully exploit the database front-end to bypass authorization, elevate account privileges, transfer money and manipulate cookies by employing an advanced ‘SQL Injection’ technique known as ‘Blind SQL Injection’. Other attack methods will include VPN IPSEC PSK cracking, circumventing DNS, Mail and Web servers using the latest techniques.

Module 5: Wireless Site Surveying

During this module, the students will learn all about the current security mechanisms employed to secure wireless networks, WEP/WPA/WPA2 and 802.11x. After talking about the security of these networks, we cover the attacks to bypass all of the security.Laboratory: Most corporate wireless networks are now protected with encryption such as Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). The auditing of these networks requires the tester to attempt to break that encryption. This is exactly what the student will do! We use advanced techniques to break WEP encryption by re-injecting encrypted packets back onto the network and cracking the key in as little as 10 minutes. The tool set the student will become expert with includes kismet, airodump, aireplay, aircrack and cowpatty.

Module 6: Attacking Bluetooth Devices

As more and more Bluetooth devices appear on the corporate network, the professional penetration tester has to enhance his/her skills to encompass this technology. PDAs, cell phones and other BT devices are all vulnerable to attacks. The hands-on laboratory will teach the students the practical skills required to discover BT devices and retrieve personal information from cell phones and even make phone calls on somebody else’s bill! The tool set includes BTscanner, ghettotooth, redfang and bluesnarfer.

Module 7: Programming 101

This module is not designed as a “learn programming in one easy step” as that is not possible. We focus our students’ efforts on checking code obtained from underground websites so that it will compile correctly and perform the actions it is meant to. We cannot use a new tool on a client network without first ensuring it is safe.

Module 8: Internal Pen Testing

Once inside the external defences, the penetration tester has a whole different set of techniques and tools to use. This module is dedicated to internal testing. It is sub-sectioned into:

Database ServersNetwork AttacksPassword Retrieval and Cracking

Having a direct connection to a database server will allow many more attack vectors such as database discovery, enumeration and direct exploits like buffer overflows. We cover the market leading database servers (MS SQL, Oracle etc) and also talk about hardening these servers.

Laboratory: ARP Cache Poisoning, SSH/SSL Man-In-The-Middle Attacks, Voice Over IP interception and DNS Poisoning, Protocol Analysis, Password Cracking (Dictionary/Brute Force/Hybrid/Rainbow Tables), Buffer Overflow/Heap Overflow/Stack Overflow Exploits are just some of the attacks in this module, all of which will enable the penetration tester to expose the weaknesses of the network.

Module 9: Physical Security

Physical access to a client’s building can offer the penetration tester a whole host of powerful attack vectors. This module will teach the student how to gain access by picking the door locks and padlocks securing the building. Yes, you read correctly! By the end of the hands on laboratory, student will be able to open most common types of pin tumbler door locks and 90% of padlocks available on the market, thus being able to play a greater part is their respective organizations physical security policies. Most ‘Ethical Hacking’ courses talk about the theory of physical access; the CPTConsultant covers the practical art of physical access.

Module 10: After the Pen Test

Laboratory: Presentation of the Penetration Test Report

1. Most lessons have hands-on laboratories.2. Laboratories will change continuously, adapting to changes in the security industry.3. Mile2 consultants working in the security field will be dynamically implementing new scenarios that are over and above the base laboratories used in student workbooks.4. Please note that this is not a class that will explain the very intricacies of each and every tool. The software is mostly open source and underground software which leaves us with no guarantee of compatibly.5. Mile2 consultants constantly test most of the tools used in this class; however, we may use a tool that is not tested in the environment we have at our partner’s site.6. We will be using a large array of Operating Systems that are set-up to be used in different ways, perhaps to attack or to use as a hacker box.7. VMware is used very often in the class. It would be helpful if you download a trial version prior to the class.

Now if they do such an in depth class as they say, I would say that the course only compares directly to something like the IACRB CPTE, or the or maybe the advanced OffSec courses? Not really familiar with them.

It doesn't show as much on job postings as much as let's say GPEN, OSCP, or CEH but I have huge respect for IACRB due to the fact that just about all their security certs have both a written exam and practical and they're not really something to underestimate.

For the CEPT, you have take a written and only if you pass can you attempt the lab. For the lab you have to write a windows vulnerability, a linux vulnerability, and reverse engineer a binary; doesn't get any better than that!